Wiscasset voters on May 14 passed the school committee’s $9.4 million, pre-Kindergarten through grade 12 budget offer intact, to go on to next month’s vote at the polls. Meeting-goers at Wiscasset High School also went with the committee’s recommendation of a pared-down local adult education program, for $10,000. A bid to fund it higher lost.

The night’s narrowest vote was the rejection of a resident’s proposed new $110,000 cut aimed at going from three principals for the town’s three schools to two principals.

“You can have two great principals, and one more is not going to make the difference ... And frankly, I think this is a place where we can cut,” retired Wiscasset Primary School Principal Cheryl Howe said in making the motion.

The vote ran 42 opposed to the motion and 36 for it. Residents went on to pass the $584,993 article for school administration in a 46-29 vote.

Voters also rejected several other motions to cut the school committee’s recommended funding amounts. Among articles passing as recommended was $793,982 for student and staff support, an article that includes pay and benefits for staff in guidance, health and technology.

In other results from Wednesday’s town meeting-style school budget meeting, voters agreed to spend $3.9 million on the “regular instruction” part of the budget, which includes teachers’ pay, supplies and other costs.

A motion by Howe to cut $275,000 from that warrant article failed in a show of hands. Howe had argued that savings could be found in music at the middle and high schools, and in the system’s Reading Recovery program. Other literacy support would meet students’ needs, Howe said.

School Committee Vice Chairman Steve Smith said he would oppose any further cuts than the committee has already made. The committee is trying to preserve services as it moves toward consolidation of schools, Smith told about 110 residents who turned out for the meeting.

The school committee proposed a $9.4 million budget that would take about $6.9 million in property taxes, possibly bumping the tax rate up 27 percent. The budget now goes to the polls for an up or down vote on June 10.

Town meeting voters on May 31 will have a chance to lower the tax hike to about 9.8 percent, with up to $1.25 million from the town’s reserve fund. Selectman Pam Dunning said the offer would only be made this year.

Resident Deb Pooler expressed support for tapping the fund. “It’s raining in Wiscasset,” Pooler said. If the money isn’t used now, she couldn’t imagine when else it would be, she said.

Addressing residents, Interim Superintendent Wayne Dorr said everyone he met with in town, from residents with suggestions, to town officials and others, worked as a team on the budget for the first year out of Regional School Unit 12.

In an interview later, Dorr said he wasn’t surprised at the meeting’s outcome. Mainers have a history of supporting education, even when that is difficult to do, he said.

The turnout and participation pleased School Committee Chairman Glen Craig. He would have liked a smaller budget, but committee members and Dorr had saved everywhere they could, he said. “I’m elated that it went through.”